PHILADELPHIA — When Andy Reid works at it, he can tell a pretty good story. Like the one where almost everyone — including Michael Vick — thought the Eagles could see a change at quarterback this week.

Reid rolled it out Thursday after the morning practice.

There were times he couldn’t keep a straight face.

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For example the review of the Eagles’ 30-17 loss to the Atlanta Falcons last Sunday revealed to Reid that “Honestly, Michael, I thought played one of his better games.”

Even Vick mildly refuted that, calling the non-turnover effort “efficient” but not what he or his teammates had in mind.

It wasn’t nearly as incredible as Reid’s assertion in the wreckage of his third straight loss, his first setback in 14 games after byes and his second career game being serenaded with the “Fire Andy” song that he really wasn’t sweating over the quarterback. How could you not be?

“My point wasn’t that I was going to bench Michael Vick,” Reid said of his post-game remarks. “It’s that I needed to step back and evaluate before I came to you. I mentioned (Wednesday) that Michael, in regards to that, was the quarterback is the quarterback and will continue to be the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles. I can’t make it any clearer than that. It’s important that I get my job going in the right direction and making sure we win football games and that I coach to win football games. I’m not doing a good enough job of that.”

“That’s shown over the last three weeks.”

Whatever Reid meant, it’s temporarily eased some of the pressure Vick carried for his part in making the Eagles 3-4 on the season and 3 1/2 point underdogs Monday when they hit the road to take on the New Orleans Saints.

Explaining he was “only human,” Vick said he’s let his season with 13 turnovers in seven games “get to me.” And oh, by the way, Vick had a sit-down with Reid, after which the quarterback was the keynote speaker at a players-only meeting Wednesday that went “great.”

“I led it off and about nine or 10 guys stood up and talked, the veterans and leaders on this team,” Vick said, the list consisting of Cullen Jenkins, DeMeco Ryans, Jeremy Maclin, Jason Avant, Todd Herremans, Brent Celek, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Nnamdi Asomugha and Trent Cole. “And it was very productive for us. We keep those conversations private but at the same time I think we all had to reevaluate our situations, look ourselves in the mirror and figure out what can we do individually and collectively.”

When Vick assessed himself in the Falcons fiasco, he saw a player who didn’t commit the big turnovers yet was too conservative to win.

“It was efficient but it wasn’t, we like to go downfield,” Vick said. “We like to attack. Our offensive personality is being aggressive, picking and choosing our spots and making plays that we know we can make. I just felt like in certain scenarios I kept it conservative but stayed aggressive and just tried to take what they gave me. And we fell behind early so it wasn’t the time for that. So the mindset has to change.”

Ditch conservative but aggressive Vick.

Fasten your seatbelt.

The old Vick, the fierce, lights-out, pedal-to-the-metal warrior is going to line up in the SuperDome where the Saints defense is giving up yardage at an NFL record pace and considers a good practice one where it gets a three-and-out against the scout team.

It’s retro-Mike Vick week — or never.

“I think I was just trying to cater to certain things and be what everybody wanted me to be,” Vick said. “The most important thing is I’ve just got to let it go. I’ve got to get my swag back. I’ve got to go back to playing football the way I love to play it and not worry about what’s going to happen because that’s out of my control. What I do, what I can control is the way that I play.”